weight pulling

[Guest Anonymous]

any pullers out there. I have 4 pulldogs and have a blast doing it with my dawgs

[Guest Anonymous]

My Golden Retriever & My Aussie Mix pull me on a cart & on scooters. Thier both very strong =) ((I weigh 84 pounds)) I'm waiting for my moms puppy Glory to grow up so we can have a whole team. Bailey & Scout train by pulling around almost thier own weight. They both seem to enjoy it & are excited when I say "Boys, you wanna go pull?"

[Guest Anonymous]

I am thinkking of getting into Pulling with my Rottie and my APBT when he gets older. I am curious where to find a good Harness though.

When di you start and how difficult is the training.

[Black GSD]

Do a search for "weight pulling harnesses". It brings up several sites. The training is VERY easy. You just need a dog that likes to pull. Afterall you CANNOT make them do it if they don't want to. The best way to get them to pull is with an awesome recall. Some people stand behind the dog and just tell them to "pull" or "mush" or whatever command you choose. But standing in front of the dog (on the other side of the finish line) is the easiest and most common way. The dog also HAS to be abe to "stay" while you walk away to the finish line. Pulling a tire is what we started with. We started with an Airplane tire and moved up in sive from there.

[Pumpkin the musher]

Try asite called "Sled Dog Central" they have an enormous site with lots of links to harness makers and suppliers. Good luck

[Guest Anonymous]

Sledding harnesses are different from pulling harnesses, pulling ones are really heavily padded about the chest and shoulder area, as well there is a pull bar behind the legs so that the weight wont crunch inon the waist or legs of the dog. I have seen lots of pictures of them in various books and magazines but I cant seem to find one.

[Pumpkin the musher]

Yes I know, one source in particular called Black Ice Sled dog Equipment carries both the sledding and weight pulling harnesses. There are also links on SDC to weight pull events both here in the US as well as Europe, Australia and South America.

[gooeydog]

[quote=ROTT'N'PIT]I am thinkking of getting into Pulling with my Rottie and my APBT when he gets older. I am curious where to find a good Harness though.

When di you start and how difficult is the training.[/quote]
I got my dog's harness from [url]Nordkyn.com[/url], but there are other places you can find them (both online and in stores).
Your APBT should be fully grown (joints closed) before you start him pulling heavy weights, usually at least a year old. If you plan on doing heavy duty pulling (competition, etc), then you should have them checked over by a good vet before you start into the serious pulling. The training isn't very difficult, but it does take time to keep a dog in good shape, and one not in good shape will likely injure itself if you let it pull too much before it's ready. To get started, first get them used to wearing the harness itself, then you can hook an empty soda bottle to the harness and let them get used to something behind them, then when they're comfortable with that, you can add some rocks into the bottle for noise. Once the dog is comfortable with that, you can start adding a little weight. I just filled the soda bottle with water and let her pull that at first. Don't hurry to add weight, instead have them pull the light weight over longer and longer distances (however long you feel like doing). When they can pull the light weight for the distance you want (lets say a mile), then you can add a little more weight, like 5-10 lbs. Repeat the above process withthe distances until they're completely used to pulling that weight, then you can add a little more. Keep adding weight slowly until you reach the point where your dog understands the concept, and is starting to get in shape for pulling. Then you can start doing shorter, heavier pulls one day of the week, long, with a rest day afterwards, and long, light pulls the rest of the week. Start with one short pull of heavy weight, then you can work up to 3-5 on the day you have the dog pull heavy weight. Once the dog seems comfortable with that, you can add in another day of the heavy weight/short distance, so your week would have:
1-Heavy pulls/short distance
2-Rest
3-Light pull/long distance
4-Heavy pulls/short distance
5-Rest
6-Light pull/long distance
7-One day left over for whatever you want (if the dog needs a break, you can take it, or you can use this day to take him running and build up his endurance more)
If the dog ever seems to be having too much trouble at a weight, drop the weight down to one he can manage.
This is just what I used for my dog, so I can't guarantee that it will work for every dog, but it did work well for us.

[Pumpkin the musher]

Perhap my opinion would be considered biased because I'm actually involved in the sport, but I do believe that there are some people involved in the Iditarod that are there for reasons of ego and personal glory and have forgotten the true meaning of the race- that of the collaboration between people and dogs to acheive a goal. At this time it is very restrictive monetarily for just anyone with a dog sled team to run the race. Some estimates run into the 10s of thousands of dollars- that includes handlers, having food and supplies flown to checkpoints, entry fees, and so forth, not to mention the time training the dogs and yourself.
Alot of people who are not really mushers in the traditional sense of the word can now lease teams and run the Iditarod, provided you have the cash. They have poor winter survival skills, and limited dog knowledge. When you train and raise your own dogs for years you develop a bond with them that you just can't buy-with any amount of money. That the problem I see with the Iditarod. As far as animal cruelty- I've seen worse invovling so called family pets who are often untrained, neglected and have no veterinary care at all. If you want to run an 1100 mile race you can't abuse your dogs in any way and expect to even finish.

[behle]

My Saint and Rottie are not involved in pulling, but here's a site that I found a while back while browsing saint sites. A huge saint pulling 3,395 pounds! :crazyeyes:

[url]http://www.mosquitonet.com/~ghbga/weight/weight.htm[/url]

[yellowlabsrule]

Good grief! :o
[img]http://www.mosquitonet.com/~ghbga/weight/sirpullscar.jpg[/img]

I wouldn't want to walk him! If he saw a cute girl he'd be outta there! :o :lol:

[Hobbit]

What a hard body! Good looking Saint.

[yellowlabsrule]

Yeah Hobbit forget the herding he'd just [i]pull[/i] the cows around! :lol:
Mmmm... maybe we should get one! :lol: :lol:

[Guest Anonymous]

WOW :o That is one strong Dog. I have always wanted a St. Bernard too. Just seeing his pic makes me melt.

[Guest Anonymous]

I've got an American Bulldog that is close to 5months (she will be Nov.9th)
i plan to get her into weight training when she's a little bit older, i've heard you should wait till they're at least a year old that way their bones and joints are stable. What ages did you start your pups at?

a website for custom harnesses: (as well as other junk)
[url]http://www.bonemart.com/wpharness.html[/url]

p.s. im a newbie here :oops:
My name is Joe, I live in South-West Canada, I hope to meet some new and interesting ppl! :D

[Black GSD]

We starte of puppies as early as 8 weeks. Just getting them used to wearing the harness and then moved up to pulling a stick or something else that is small and has no weight. It still gets them used to having the harness on and having something dragging behind them.

What "type" of weight pulling are you planning on doing? I know that the "pit bull" type dogs at least used to have their own different clubs and rules.
We belonged to the IWPA. There you had to either leave your dog and go on the other side of the finish line and call the dog to you. You were NOT allowed to touch the dog in any way, (After the time started.) nor could you have ANYTHING in your hands. Not even your leash. So the dog HAD to stay loose (meaning with no one holding it.) until you called it, you could do most anything to encourage it EXCEPT have food or toys. OR you could leave the dog and stand behind it and tell it to pull. Which ever way you wanted to do it. But these are things you can practice with a puppy.

[True_Pits]

I do a little pulling it is fun for the dogs and a great work out. My line is both conformation & weight pull so I have fun doing both, they are American Pit Bull Terriers. That is what I love about the breed and this line specifincally all around great dogs, one is a record holder pulling 5,123lbs & 128xs body weight at the weight of 40lbs. There are many other greats. What breed of dog do you pull with?